19.10.08

1970-1979

1970

Circa 1970 — The Caspian Tiger becomes extinct. Nearly exterminated by the Russian government in the early 20th century whiel the last of its population succumbed to deforestation and hunting.

By 1970, over 100 million American elms succumb to Dutch Elm disease in the United States, many of them dating from the 1700s. Efforts were wasted in frantic "cut and burn" campaigns. With no programs to save the American elm, it was up to private citizens to prevent this great tree from going the way of the chestnut.

Students Sandra Scheuer, Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause and William Schroeder are slain by Ohio State National Guardsmen at Ohio State University.

May 31 - Major earthquake hits Peru killing 66,794 throughout the country. The town of Yungay gets the worst when a peak from Mt. Huarscaran falls into the lake above the town, tipping the lake over onto the village and killing 20,000 under water and earth and rock in 3 minutes.

The Egg McMuffin sandwich is test marketed in the US as McDonald's first breakfast menu item.

7Up The Uncola

"All in the Family" debuts

1972

World Trade Center completed

John Wayne Gacy Jr. (March 17, 1942 - May 10, 1994), also known as The Killer Clown, was an American serial killer. He was convicted and later executed for the rape and murder of 33 boys and young men, 29 of whom he buried in a crawl space under the floor of his house, while others were found in nearby rivers, between 1972 and his arrest in 1978. He became notorious as the "Killer Clown" because of the many block parties he threw for his friends and neighbors, entertaining children in a clown suit and makeup, under the name of "Pogo the Clown."

On Thursday, January 11, 1973, the first broadcast of An American Family changed television history forever. A 12-hour documentary series on PBS, An American Family chronicled seven months in the day-to-day lives of the William C. Loud family of Santa Barbara, California. An audience of ten million viewers watched in fascination the unfolding real-life drama of Bill and Pat Loud, and their five children, Lance, Kevin, Grant, Delilah and Michele.

If you showed up on July 6, 1974, at the Janet Wallace Auditorium at Macalester College in Saint Paul and plunked down your $1 admission (50 cents for kids) to attend the very first broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion, you were in select company. There were about 12 people in the audience.

July 24 the Supreme Court decides United States vs. Nixon. The question: Is the President's right to safeguard certain information, using his "executive privilege" confidentiality power, entirely immune from judicial review? The Court decides 8-0 that neither the doctrine of separation of powers, nor the generalized need for confidentiality of high-level communications, without more, can sustain an absolute, unqualified, presidential privilege. The Court granted that there was a limited executive privilege in areas of military or diplomatic affairs, but gave preference to "the fundamental demands of due process of law in the fair administration of justice." Therefore, the president must obey the subpoena and produce the tapes and documents. The Opinion Announcement of the Court 16:49

September 8, one month after President Richard Nixon resigned the presidency amid the Watergate scandal, his successor, President Gerald R. Ford, announced his decision to grant Nixon a full pardon for any crimes he may have committed while in office. Page 1 of the PardonPage 2 of the Pardon

1975

1975 - Ocean Parkway Bike Path designated as a scenic landmark to prevent any further compromise to the historic design.

At 3:42 a.m. on July 28, 1976, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit the sleeping city of Tangshan, in northeastern China. The very large earthquake, striking an area where it was totally unexpected, obliterated the city of Tangshan and killed over 240,000 people - making it the deadliest earthquake of the twentieth century.

Invention of the Year: Test tube babies. The world's first test-tube baby Louise Brown was born, thanks to in vitro fertilisation, researched by Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards in Britain.

Nobel Peace Prize: Begin (Israel) + Sadat (Egypt). (Both whom are responsible for more war than than the average jamoke!)

Bicycling becomes more popular because of environmental awareness (the first Earth Day was in 1970), the oil embargo, and resulting fuel shortages. In 1978, more bikes than cars are sold in the US.

1979

On November 4, 1979, Iranian militants students stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran and took approximately seventy Americans captive. The students were supported by Iran's post-revolutionary regime that was in the midst of solidifying power and objected to U.S. influence in Iran and its support of the recently fallen Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had been installed by a CIA funded coup in 1953.